Buzziest Books of 2023

It is once again time to count down my best reads of the year. 2023 was an awesome reading year for me. I read 113 books for a total of 39,839 pages. The shortest book I read was Forty Acres Deep by local author Michael Perry. The longest book I read was Fairy Tale by Stephen King. While neither of those titles makes my best of the year, some very good books did.

Best Memoir

3rd - Solito by Javier Zamora

2nd - Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

1st - Mean Baby by Selma Blair

Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

3rd - The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

2nd - Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

1st - Goodnight, Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

Science Fiction

1st - Viscious by V.E. Schwab

Fantasy

3rd - When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

2nd - The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

1st - Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Young Adult Fiction (YA)

1st - Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow

Historical Fiction

3rd - West With Giraffes by Linda Rutledge

2nd - The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

1st - Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

Literary Fiction

The vast majority of what I read is Literary Fiction, so far this one I will give you my top 5 for the year.

5th - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

4th - The One Hundred Years of Lenin and Margot by Marianne Cronin

3rd - Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

2nd - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

1st - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

My Favorite Book of 2023

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - This book is a masterpiece. Kingsolver won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction with this novel and she could not have been any more deserving of that honor. As my son said, "The premise of writing it as a modern David Copperfield to show that the issues he wrote about haven't been solved and then placing it in 90s Appalachia is genius." In addition to the idea behind the book being an incredible place to start, her writing is like a masterclass. I cannot say enough about this book. Is it depressing? Yes, but books that make a difference can't always be joyful and uplifting. The book does leave some room for hope at the end. I guess the real question is, what do we do to create the change that needs to happen so that it isn't necessary for someone to write a modern Demon Copperhead 170 years from now.